Monty Tech prevails in overtime

FITCHBURG -- Time and time again, the Monty Tech girls' basketball team held sizable leads over visiting Murdock Monday night.

Each time, the lead slipped away.

But the Bulldogs put together a crucial 6-0 run over 53 seconds during overtime to pull out a 56-54 victory over the Blue Devils at Bulldog Gymnasium to earn their second win of the season.

Trailing 51-50 with just under two minutes to go, Monty Tech came to life. Monica Pucko's offensive rebound and put-back gave the hosts a one-point edge, and a corner jumper from Brandi Richard 19 seconds later pushed the lead to three. Meredith Carrier's turnaround jumper in the paint capped the Bulldog scoring with 52 seconds remaining, giving the hosts a 56-51 advantage.

"We had a couple decent leads tonight and let them go," Monty Tech head coach Steve Newingham said. "Right before overtime, we were in a nice spot, but then they hit a 3 and another shot. But we bounced back in overtime."

Murdock had trailed 47-42 with 1:30 left in the game, but a 3-pointer by Sarah Vose (16 points) followed by a bucket from the lane by Amanda Newell knotted the game at 47. Each team hit a free throw prior to the close of regulation to bring the score to 48-all.

"It was an exciting game," Murdock head coach John Maliska said. "We kept trying to claw our way back in, but it just wasn't going to happen."

After working to an 11-11 deadlock through one quarter, the Bulldogs pulled out to a 23-16 lead midway through the second.

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Richard (game-high 19 points) and Brittany Velez connected on back-to-back buckets before Pucko made it a seven-point game with three minutes left in the half.

But Murdock responded, scoring four straight on shots by Newell and Autumn Brown to cut the lead to three. A free throw with 21 seconds remaining by Vose cut the Monty Tech advantage to 23-21 at the break.

The Bulldogs held a five-point advantage at the end of three and saw the lead grow to 45-39 in the fourth before the visitors rallied.

Monty Tech freshman Kaitlyn MacAlister had just two points in the victory, but pulled down an impressive 15 rebounds.

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